Avatar and School Don't Mix
by Kittyaceres
Summary: AU. The Gaang comes to school with me! Aang and Toph are in the seventh grade with Tess Anderson. Azula is in the eighth grade. The rest are either freshmen or juniors. During their visit, Tess's best friend, Gwen Johnson, is at home recovering from her tonsillectomy. Without her, Tess struggles with being bullied by Azula, and her new friend Mark Roth, whose brother Tess likes.
1. Chapter 1

Tess Anderson's POV- (it's mostly hers, but I just wanted for you to know her name)

I sat in the office. As seventh grade representative for the school's government, I had to lead all the new seventh graders around our tiny school. Don't get me wrong; usually, I love being seventh grade rep. I'm also a little shy around new people, though. Only new people. That's why I hate leading people around school.

The two new seventh graders rushed in around 8:30. They finished signing in and turned to me.

I was a little upset, because unlike normal people, I actually care about my learning, so doing the whole leading around deal was instead of getting me out of class, it was cutting away from my learning time.

"You're late," I said. Usually, I don't judge people by the way they look, but these kids—Aang and Toph—were weird. They were wearing robes instead of normal people clothes; Aang was bald; and Toph was blind.

"Brrr. I'm gonna call you Freezer Burn for that," Toph said.

"You can call me Tess, for that's my name," I retorted.

"Your name is Test? That's a strange name," Aang said.

"It's T-E-S-S. No _t_ on the end."

"Oh, sorry, Tess. So, when does this tour start?" Aang asked.

"All day. You guys follow me in all my classes for the day, and tomorrow you get your schedules. By then, I'll know you, and we'll be cool, unless my initial coldness made you hate me!" I said cheerfully.

I showed them the multipurpose room. It served as the gym, cafeteria, assembly hall, and where we have pep rallies when it was too cold outside where our stage was. Leading off to one side was the girl's locker room, and on the opposite side of the room was the boy's locker room.

I showed them where the boy's bathroom was, the girl's bathroom, and the library. Finally, I made them pull out their schedules. I looked to see which lockers they had.

"What?! Gwen gets home schooled for three months while she recovers from her tonsillectomy, and they give her locker away?" I complained.

"Your friend had a tonsillectomy? Is she all right?" Aang asked.

I opened his locker, which was Gwen's old one, for him. "What? Yeah, she's fine."

"You said she was recovering. Was she hurt?" Toph asked.

"Yeah, she just kept getting Strep Throat for no reason so they decided to pull out her tonsils. No big deal," I said.

Aang closed his lock. "How did you open this?" he asked.

I pulled it from his hands and showed him very carefully how to open his lock. Thankfully, Toph's was right next to his, so the tour went quicker.

I stumbled into math class two minutes before the bell rang. The tour had taken all of home room and first period. Good thing Mrs. White was a nice teacher and she didn't mind. She told me I hadn't missed much, just that we were just going over last night's homework, which was actually pretty hard.

I raced off to P.E., which was second period. I speedily dressed and walked calmly out of the locker room before Aang and Toph were even at the door.

"Why did you ditch us like that?" Toph complained.

"And why did you change clothes?" Aang asked.

I looked down at my grey-and-blue PE uniform. Since today was Friday, it was pretty smelly. "It's time for PE, and you change for PE," I explained. I pulled my dark brown hair into a ponytail and sat down in my spot. Toph and Aang sat down behind me confused.

"PE? What does that stand for?" Aang asked.

A kid laughed. Grrr. It was Mark Roth, the school bully. "What kind of idiot doesn't know what PE stands for?" he asked.

"Do you?" Mark's brother, Oliver, asked. Oliver was Mark's younger brother. At this school, PE was mixed between eighth and seventh grade. Oliver is nice, contradictory to Mark, and I would die if anyone found out I had a crush on him!

"Yes! Shut up, pipsqueak!" Mark retorted. Oliver grinned.

"Please. The only reason you've made it this far is because the teacher's aren't allowed to hold you back," Oliver said. "Didn't they hold you back in kindergarten because you couldn't read yet? Oh, wait, they did!"

"Shut up! PE stands for Physical Education. There," Mark said.

"Hey, you two, stop fighting. We should all be nice to each other," Aang cut in, just as Oliver was going to say something to his brother. Wow, this kid has guts. Too bad he was about to pay for it.

Mark mocked Aang. "Hah, who do you think you are, Snow White?" Mark asked. Aang shrugged it off, probably because he didn't know who Snow White was.

"Okay, that's enough. Mark, this is Aang, and she's Toph. They're new. Leave them alone," I said.

"Nice to meet you two," Oliver offered, "I'm Oliver Roth. Sadly, that jock lumbering away is my brother, Mark Roth."

I hid a smile. My mom and Oliver's mom were both in the Parent's club, and Derek, my older brother, who was a freshman, and Mark were close friends. When we were younger, I would have to spend time at Oliver's house when our parents would be hanging out. Now, Oliver and I were pretty close friends. We would always joke around, wondering if Mark and Oliver were even related.

"Your brother's a jerk," Toph said. We would have continued our conversation there, but the teacher, Mr. Garrison, finally came out of his office.

PE is split at my school, so once Mr. Garrison finished taking roll, Mrs. Berry's class was filing out the door to head over to the high school's gym. The high school's gym was right next door.

"Where are they going?" Aang asked.

"High school gym," I answered.

"Why?" Toph asked.

"PE is split, and since we don't have two gyms, the other class goes to the high school," I whispered.

"Anderson! Are you gossiping?" Mr. Garrison asked.

"No, sir. I'm answering the questions of the new seventh graders that I'm leading around school," I answered.

Mr. Garrison shook his head and looked down at his clip board. He muttered as he read. "Okay. Because you guys beat Holly's class by twenty points on Wednesday, you don't have to run the mile. Instead, you have free time. Make sure you play something, or you won't get any points." Yes. The other teacher's name was Holly Berry. It is not weird.

The class rushed out of the doors to the soccer/ football field, which was right next to the basketball courts.

Oliver came up to me with a basketball. "C'mon, Test, we're gonna play three on three. Paul, Terry, and Fred versus you, me, and…oh, wait."

"Gwen's not here," I reminded him. I turned to Aang and Toph. "Aang, you wanna be on the team with Ollie, here, and me? Toph, you can be the ref," I suggested.

Oliver punched me lightly. Aang agreed, but Toph said she would find something else to do.

Fred and Paul went quickly over the rules with Aang. Meanwhile, Terry, Oliver, and I went over who was going to jump.

Aang ran over to us. "Can I jump?" he requested.

"Aang, you aren't that tall. Oliver, at 5'5", would be a better choice," I said.

"Yeah, but I can jump really high!" he complained, and jumped about four feet in the air to demonstrate.

"Well, I'm convinced," Oliver said.

I held the ball for Aang and Terry to jump. They both touched it and I threw it high in the air. Aang smacked the ball down hard, (duh) but he hit it on the wrong side. I patted him on the arm, and then squeezed past Paul to steal the ball from Fred. I threw the ball high in the air to Oliver, who swished a three.

The game continued. Turns out, Aang is really good. Fred, who is a bit of a cheater, started to trip us when we got five points ahead. My face is covered in scratches, but somehow, Aang managed not to get tripped, even when he didn't notice Fred's perfectly placed foot.

We were ahead by one point when Mr. Garrison blew his whistle for us all to go back in and get changed. I was stuffing my P.E. clothes back in my backpack when the bell rang.

"See you in Art!" called Oliver. I wished he wouldn't do that. Kids would ask if we made out in the back of classroom when he did that. We don't. End of story.

I walked into the English classroom listening to Toph describe how terribly boring hula-hooping is. She's never had a hula-hoop war.

I turned my head to look at the board to read the objective for today. "What. The. Hell." The board was covered in colons. That must have taken forever to write. I could see smudge marks where kids had presumably rubbed out colons. I sat down at my desk and bonked my head on it.

Mrs. Kutchel has the weirdest last name on campus, possibly, and she has a personality to match. Not as much as strange, but more like charismatic. Still, I never expected she would cover the board in punctuation marks.

"What are you doing?" Toph asked, sitting in Gwen's empty seat. I happened to be sitting on the edge of the classroom, so Aang had pulled up a chair to sit next to me.

"Good morning class!" Mrs. Kutchel said.

The entire class replied, "Good morning!" What can I say; Mrs. Kutchel has a contagious, charismatic personality. There is never bland day in her room. There's also no misbehaving. Her happiness will melt away, and that's really scary.

"I can see we have two new students. Tess, you must be leading them around?" Mrs. Kutchel asked. I smiled and nodded back.

"Oh, well, come, come, you two, come here up to the front of the class!" Toph and Aang awkwardly inched toward the class room. "What are your names?" Mrs. Kutchel asked.

"I'm Aang." Guess Who.

"Toph," Toph said.

"Where do you two come from?" Mrs. Kutchel asked.

"Um, we were home schooled…in a different country," Toph answered.

"Which one?"

Aang had been examining the map in the back of the classroom. "Canada," he blurted.

"Cool! You don't have an accent though."

I could tell they were lying. "Our adopted dad didn't have the accent either," Aang replied. Toph nodded.

"Okay. That's enough. I like your tattoos," Mrs. Kutchel said as Aang and Toph sat down.

We got into an interesting, intense lesson on colons. I was definitely going to be using them in my writing more often: example?

At the end of class, Mrs. Kutchel reminded us that our book reports were due in two weeks.

Finally, time for an elective! I ran down to the art classroom. Miss Princeton was really dragging out her history class.

"Did you see the board in English?" Oliver asked. I nodded. "I wanted to rub out 'Oliver was here,' but Mrs. Kutchel stopped me before I got the chance to finish the _O_."

Just before the bell rang, eighth graders flooded out of Miss Princeton's classroom. Mark stopped in front of Oliver and me to say, "I pushed two desks together for you two." He ran off snickering.

Idiot. He doesn't even know that we sit in the front of the class. Sure enough, two desks were pushed into a corner. I helped Miss Princeton push the desks back into place.

Art is a non-seating chart class, which means we get to sit where ever is convenient for us.

A nice eighth grader named Karen passed out the paintings everyone had been working on. We had been working on these paintings for pretty much the past two weeks, and it was finally time to present.

I volunteered first to show off my painting: Where I am when I Close My Eyes. I had started it before Gwen told me she was going to have a tonsillectomy, so it was the setting of my book report book instead of Gwen's bedroom, making sure she's alright in every way. I seriously care about my best friend.

My painting was a dark forest. Light was streaming in between the trees. A rusty-red cat was sleeping in a moss nest next to the base of a large tree. My book was the first Warrior Cat's book, if you haven't guessed.

"Wow, Tess, you are really good," Aang said, staring at my painting.

I looked at someone else's painting of a dark bedroom. In glowing green letters, the clock read "12:34." Fair enough, that kid loved to sleep and was constantly dozing off in class.

Oliver insisted on going last. His was a boy swinging into a lake from a rope while two girls waited for their turns. I recognized this scene. Oliver had changed the looks of the kids, but I still new who it was. It was supposed to be him, me, and Gwen at Lake Sinestra. Gwen's family owned a cabin on the lake, and we would visit every summer.

"That was so boring," Toph complained as we walked to the lunchroom

"You have some really good artists in your class," Aang said.

"Thank you," Oliver and I replied at exactly the same time.

"Jinx!" I called, just before Oliver.

"What's for lunch?" Toph asked.

"What did you bring?" I asked.

"Uhh, oh that's right, Katara and Sokka's dad was going to bring us lunch, remember Aang?" Toph said. Aang smacked his forehead. They assured us they would be back and ran off to the front of the school.

Oliver and I got our lunches. We sat down next to one of Oliver's friends.

"Hey, Pedro, do we need our science books?" I asked.

"Yeah, you always need your science book!" Pedro replied. "Do we need our P.E. books?" he asked.

The entire table burst out laughing. Pedro put on his groucho glasses. Aang and Toph came back with thermoses. I made room for them as they sat eating soup. Pedro cracked jokes all throughout lunch, as he usually does. Luckily, they weren't about Aang or Toph.

Science class was next. Aang and Toph sat in the lab. Pedro lied. We did not need our science books. We were watching a video called, "The Wonders of Osmosis."

I was really bored, because the video was really boring. During class, I ripped two long strips of paper out of my notebook, and started folding them like an accordion.

"Toph, does your hair transpire?" Aang teased, "Because your feet are coated with dirt and your body is the stalk, and—"

Toph knocked Aang over, and it wasn't playful. Aang got up and we walked to History class.

Today, we had to do partner notes. Mr. Sandler made Aang read to Toph and they both had to do the notes. Poor kids.

We were learning about Ancient Rome, and the reasons it fell. Honestly, I feel that because Rome spread itself out too far, and the money was changing too much.

I turned in the notes. Oliver and I were the first ones done. I spent the next twenty minutes finishing my Warrior Cats book. It was pretty good, and I could do the report over the weekend! Well, maybe not.

Finally, it was time for band. In reality, it was Beginner's band, but still band. Aang and Toph got to listen to us as we rehearsed. Mr. Pearson handed out a new piece, called Crystal City Overture. It looked hard.

I played the Bb, or B flat, scale to warm up.

"Tess, could you play the tuning note? I need to tune," Oliver said.

I smiled. "So do I," I replied. I played the C, and adjusted my tuning slide, until my trumpet sounded perfectly tuned. I played the C for Oliver. He played a note, and I swear, if this was a cartoon, a crooked eighth note would have come flying out of the bell of his clarinet.

"You are sharp," Mr. Pearson said. Oliver adjusted his reed and played again.

"Now you're flat," I said. Oliver pushed it in a little bit and played. I held a thumb up.

We spent the period going over Crystal City Overture. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Kids kept staring at Aang and Toph. Geez, they've been following me around all day; why do you keep staring at them.

"Alright class. Time to go. Don't forget to take your instruments home. Tess, can you take the flute part to Gwen?" Mr. Pearson requested.

"She's home schooled. When are we performing this piece?" I asked.

"In May. She will be back by then. You will be going to her house, right?" Mr. Pearson asked.

I took the flute part. "Yeah, duh," I muttered. I stuffed the part into my binder, then took Gwen's binder from her cubby, stuffed that and my binder into my backpack. Then I took her flute out and started walking home.

"Tess, you play the flute as well?" Aang asked as I approached to the curb of school where he and Toph were sitting.

"No, this is Gwen's. What are you two doing?" I asked.

"Waiting for Katara and Sokka. Sokka just got his license, and he insists on driving us to and from school," Aang answered.

"Oh. Well, have fun. High school doesn't get out until three-thirty." The look on Toph's face was priceless. I chuckled all the way to Gwen's house.

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**A/N: Twenty dollars goes to the first one to guess why I called the band teacher Mr. Pearson. I need reviews to post the next chapter, so REVIEW! PLEASE!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Why is no one reviewing?! I still have that twenty dollars to give away! Peeps in band should get this! (Hint: Standard of Excellence)**

**Thank you Wilhelm Wigworthy for reviewing! I didn't really mean to put a cliffhanger, for I couldn't think of a different way of ending it...**

Chapter 2

I opened the door to Gwen's house and walked up to her room. I mumbled a hello to her mom.

"Hey, Gwen, guess what?" I said. Gwen was lying in her bed, looking very cross. She shook her head. "What, still can't talk?" I asked. Gwen nodded.

I passed her the flute. "Mr. Pearson wants you to practice this piece," I explained handing her Crystal City Overture.

"Great," Gwen whispered. I told her about Aang and Toph, and how Aang got her locker. That made Gwen mad. Her mom brought her and me ice-cream, and we spent the next hour watching cartoons.

"Has your dad visited you yet?" I asked.

Gwen made a sour face, and shook her head. Gwen's parents are divorced, which is probably the main reason she's an only child. I wish I was an only child. Derek is so annoying and Julia is spoiled. Why do you think I'm spending so much time at Gwen's?

"Hey, Tess, can you do me a favor?" Gwen whispered.

"I thought you weren't supposed to talk," I responded.

Gwen handed me a diary. "Can you write in this, so I don't have to? Mom thinks I should write in it, and she'll be heartbroken if no one writes in it," she said.

I smiled and began the first entry, which was basically the day's events up until now. Now, this story you're reading isn't my diary, but it's based a lot off of it. I would have continued up until the part where I could write, "And now I'm writing these words, oh, look, Gwen's mom is kicking me out," because that's pretty much what happened.

I walked home. I noticed a pale blue car in the neighbor's driveway. I put my stuff inside and came back. I climbed into my treehouse. I finished writing in the day's events to the diary.

"Dad, can we move in today? I don't want to spend another night in the stupid hotel room," a teenager said.

I looked out the window. Two guys were getting into the car.

"No, there's not enough time today. We have a lot of stuff," the man said.

"But Dad!" the teenager complained. They got into the car and drove away.

Derek was late that night. He showed up around six-thirty.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Football practice," Derek replied proudly.

"Congratulations for making the team," I said, politely, since Julia was in the room. We weren't allowed to fight around Julia, because Mom and Dad were afraid that we would rub off on her and turn her into a delinquent. Honestly, that girly little princess had to chance of ever turning to a life of crime and/or cigarettes, as the parent's were worried of.

"What, no insult, band nerd?" Derek asked. He hadn't noticed Julia yet.

"Mommy and Daddy said you weren't allowed to fight around me, remember?" Julia said for me.

"Yeah, and you're a tattletale," I said. That was the main thing that kept Derek and me from not fighting around Julia.

"I'm telling Mom!" Julia ran out of the room.

"Julia! Your sandwich is getting cold!" I called. Julia raced back.

I smiled and handed it to her. Little twerp didn't even realize that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches didn't even _get _cold.

I took the sandwich I had made for myself up to my room. I started watching tv. Because it was Friday, Disney channel had new episodes. Sadly, I couldn't watch much else, because Julia could come in at any second. We shared this room…sigh! At least Julia doesn't climb into my bed anymore.

The next day, I woke up to loud _Beep! Beep! Beep! _noises. I looked out the window, and saw a large U-haul truck backing into the neighbor's house. I got out of bed, and just as I finished dressing, the doorbell rang.

"Hi, Oliver."

"Hey. Julia up yet? She and Amber have a play date today," Oliver said.

"One sec. Julia?!" I called.

"What?!" Julia screamed

"Yeah, she's up. Where's Amber?" I asked. Oliver's little sister ran up from the yard.

"Who's moving in?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Amber, you want breakfast?" Amber nodded.

I made Amber and Julia breakfast. Corn flakes, yum. I finished my bowl. By that time, Dad was up, so I was clear to go. Mom went to the Big 5 to get Derek some football equipment, or something.

"Let's go see if your new neighbors need help moving in!" Oliver suggested.

"They're your neighbors too!" I said. We wandered over.

The man who I had seen yesterday came up to me. He was holding a box, which he put down to shake my hand.

"Hello, I'm Hakoda. What's your names?" he asked.

"I'm Tess Anderson. I live next door," I said.

"I'm Oliver Roth. I live four houses down that way," Oliver said.

"I've heard about you from Aang and Toph! You led them around school yesterday, right?" Hakoda asked me. I nodded.

"We were just wondering if you wanted any help unpacking," I said.

"If you want, that's all right by me," Hakoda said. I took the box from him. It was labeled "Kitchen," so that's where I put it.

About four hours later, we were pretty much finished unpacking. I got introduced to Aang and Toph's adopted brothers and sister.

"Hi, I'm Zuko. Please don't ask about the scar, that's a long story," a tall kid with dark hair falling over his eyes and a scar over his left eye said.

"I'm Katara," the girl with brown hair and blue eyes said. She had a large smile on her face.

"I'm Sokka, the brains," the boy I had seen last night said. Katara punched him playfully.

"I'm Tess Anderson, and this is Oliver Roth."

"Thank you so much for all your help," Katara said.

"You're welcome. Careful, not all of the kids on this street are as nice as us," I warned, thinking of Derek and Mark.

"Okay. Why don't you kids go play. I'll make lunch," Hakoda said.

"Bike race?" I asked Oliver.

Oliver ran to his house to get his bike. Aang and his friends got their bikes as well.

"Okay, here are the rules. We go counter-clockwise around the block; first one back wins," I explained.

"Onetwothreee—go!" Oliver yelled. I hate it when he does that. I pedaled as hard as I could. Oliver had managed a two second advantage, and he's pretty fast. I slowed down at the corner, unlike Oliver, who fell down. Ha, chump.

I was in the lead, until Aang passed me by. He was pedaling at impossible speed. By the time I got back to my house, Aang was passed out on the lawn.

Toph had managed to beat Oliver. She was on a scooter, because she couldn't see on a bike. What, that's fair. When it was just Gwen, Oliver, and I, we would have one of us on a scooter, one on a bike, and one running. Do not judge. I was pretty sure that the only reason she beat him was because Oliver refused to slow down at the corners and fell down.

"What?!" Oliver was mad.

"Dude, if you stop at the corners like you're supposed to, then that wouldn't happen!" I shouted back.

Oliver brushed his hair off his forehead, even though he didn't need to.

"Hey, Ollie!" Ugh, Mark.

Mark was walking down the street with a leash in one hand and a Chuckit in the other.

"Aww, what a cute dog!" Katara said. She started to pet Oliver's dog, Chewy. Chewy was the color of oatmeal, with little black spots. (So, pretty much a dark Dalmatian.)

"Mom says you have to walk the dog. Take the little twerp with you," Mark said, referring to Lucy, Oliver's baby sister.

If you think that's bad enough, Oliver also has a sister in college and his mom is six months pregnant. Five siblings! Oliver's the middle child, too. I thought being the middle child of three was bad enough.

Anyway, Lucy toddled after Mark. "Wait up!" she yelled. I admired Lucy. Unlike Amber, Lucy is a total tomboy, and she's attempted to beat up Mark on several occasions.

Oliver grabbed Lucy's hand. "Are you sure she asked me? She's always asking you to walk Chewy," Oliver retorted.

"Yeah, but I'm too lazy," Mark said. He let go of the leash, threw the ball out of the Chuckit, and gave me the Chuckit. Then he ran home.

Chewy saw the ball fly through the air. He ran after it.

"Get tat dog!" Lucy yelled. Sokka and Aang snapped into action and started running after him. Zuko and Katara soon followed. Toph, figuring they would catch the dog, stayed behind.

We watched them chase Chewy down the street.

"Should I?" I asked.

"Should you what?" Toph asked.

"Call Chewy?" I answered.

"CHEWY!" Oliver yelled.

Chewy stopped in his tracks. He looked at Oliver. Oliver waved his hand, signaling for Chewy to come. Just as Zuko was about to catch him, Chewy started running at us.

Lucy squealed and ran out of the way of Chewy. Chewy saw this as an invitation to start playing and chased Lucy. He brought her to the ground and started licking her. Lucy screamed for help.

I walked over and tugged the leash. Chewy climbed off of Lucy and followed me obediently back to the group. Lucy brushed the dog slime off of her overalls and followed. Toph's friends ran back over.

"Stupid dog," Zuko grumbled. I grinned.

"I'd better go to the dog park. They won't want us playing fetch in the middle of the street." Oliver and Lucy walked away with Chewy.

Hakoda invited me over for lunch, although, it wasn't very good. Oh, well. At least it was more time away from Julia, Amber, and Derek.

I walked back outside, and Derek was just arriving at home. He hopped out of the car and walked up to me.

"Hey, Band Nerd. We have new neighbors? Great!" That was sarcasm, if you couldn't tell.

"Hi Derek…" I sighed. An idea popped into my mind. "Finished with your shopping spree?" I asked.

The insult escaped Derek. "Yes."

I struggled into a frown. "Good for you. Does Mom want me at home?" I asked.

"Not tha—Hey!" Finally, Derek got the joke.

Aang, Toph, Sokka, Katara, and Zuko came outside. Was it just my imagination, or did Katara blush when she saw Derek? EWW!

"Derek! Tess! Come help put the groceries away!" Mom called.

"See you guys," I said. Derek and I ran home to help with the groceries.

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**A/N: Attention Reviewers! I am requesting help! **

**I'm not sure what electives to put Aang and Toph in. The choices are: Art, Band, Creative Writing, Drama, Spanish, French, Woodshop, and Metalshop.**

**Aang: ?/?**

**Toph: ?/?**

**And now I really CAN'T post until you review, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!**

**P.S. Azula will be mentioned next chapter, and introduced in Chapter 4!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hi, Y'all!**

**First off: **

**Thank you to True Thinker for reviewing.**

**Thank you to Snugglesthefluffykitten and strange-summer-melancholy for favoriting.**

**Thank you to Wilhelm Wigworthy for following.**

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**So, it's been like two weeks since I've posted. I didn't get anyone to vote in the poll. I. have. put. it. off. long. enough. So I figured out Aang's and Toph's schedules without any of your help. It was hard.**

**Disclaimer: I own: Tess, Oliver, Gwen, _O Where O Where Has My Piggy Gone?,_ Mrs. White, Mr. Garrison, Mrs. Kutchel, Miss Princeton, Mr. Chase, Mr. Sandler, Mr. Pearson, Mark, Derek, Julia, Katherine J. (Gwen's mom) Jerry A. (Tess's dad) Callie A. (Tess's mom) Andrew R. (Oliver's dad) Valerie R. (Oliver's mom) Amber, Lucy, and Alexis, and anyone/thing I have forgotten. Like, the plot. Oh, I also own Brian.**

**I do not own: Avatar the Last Airbender or any of it's characters, and also groucho glasses. I hope doing this once is good enough for you!**

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Chapter 3

The next week flew by in a flash! Aang, it turns out, is in three of my classes: HomeroomMath, Science and Band. (He plays the recorder, and is so awesome!) Toph is in absolutely none of my classes, which sucks. She's really cool.

After school, Toph begged me to get Gwen to help her with the part of Beth in the play _O Where O Where Has My Piggy Gone?_ Mrs. Xavier, the drama teacher, wrote it herself. Apparently, Gwen's understudy (Gwen was the female lead.) had other plans the night the play was going to be performed, so Toph got the part.

I tried to explain to Toph that Gwen couldn't talk, and there was no way her mother was going to let her outside for another month. Toph, mistakenly assuming that because Gwen was a thespian I must have been too, (Hah, no.) made me help her out by playing all the other parts. Even the pig: Bacon. (Mrs. Xavier has a big imagination, probably larger than Mrs. Kutchel.)

"Oink," I muttered, wishing that Derek would take the camera out of my face.

"You just want to be free, don't you." Toph asked in a monotone.

"Oink," I said, scratching at an imaginary fence.

"You just want to root for truffles, don't you." Toph asked, again in the annoying monotone.

"Oink," I answered.

"CUT!" Oliver said. "Tess, Tess, Tess. That was—" Oliver bit back a snort. "—interesting. Toph, I wish I could say the same for you. Instead of saying 'You just want to be free don't you.'" monotone, of course, "say, 'You just want to _free!_ don't you?!' See the difference?"

We all laughed. Oliver said _free!_ so high pitched that his voice had cracked, and he was attempting an awful female Southern accent.

"No offense, but don't bother trying out for the school play again next semester," I said.

That made Oliver a little upset. "You're just jealous because you're playing a pig and all you get to say is 'oink.'"

"Let's do another scene, shall we?" I asked.

This time, I was playing the mayor.

Toph walked briskly up to me. She was supposed to be running. "Oh no. My pig has escaped. Can you help me."

"Why, sure," I wiggled my imaginary mustache. What? It's in the script! "Can you describe the pig for me?"

"He has a, uh," Toph paused to read the script. (Braille version for her.) "A _cutie-wootie wittul nose_ and a brown spot on his back and a curly-wurly tail and…" Blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. I swear, the only time Toph ever wavered from her monotone voice was when she said, "cutie-wootie wittul nose." I had no idea Toph could do that!

I almost fell asleep in place. I was awoken by Derek, slapping me with some of my sheet music.

"Hey!" I complained. I realized everyone was looking at me expectantly. I searched through all twelve lines of description about this one stupid little pig. "Uhhh, was the…latch gate—I mean, gate latch unlocked when you last saw your pig?" I read.

Toph was starting to get the hang of this as I was getting worse. "Why, no! I remember quite distinctly locking it."

"Did you now." I replied, reading right off the script, so I sounded like a robot. "When…you…locked…him…in…was…he…on…the…inside…or…the…outside?"

"Uh, outside I believe," Toph said, getting the hang of acting.

"Now, which gate was it? The one facing the woods or the road?" I asked.

"The woods—no, the road," Toph replied.

"No time to be wasted!" I did what the script asked and ran. Only I ran into Zuko.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Zuko yelled.

"Sorry," I muttered. "It could have been worse, you could have been in a car."

Zuko ignored me and shoved past to talk to Toph, Aang, Katara, and Sokka. "I have bad news," he said.

"What?" Sokka asked, getting in a defensive position.

"My dad found out where we are," Zuko answered.

"Your dad?" Katara echoed.

"This isn't good!" Aang said. "If he tries to steal you again! He can't!"

"I know, I know. He wants to talk to me though. Alone," Zuko said.

"You should do it in a public place, so if he tries anything, we can stop him," Toph said.

"You're not going to actually talk to him, are you? I mean, we'd have to move _again_ if you did!" Sokka complained.

"I'm going to. I heard my mom's voice over the phone," Zuko said.

"Your mom?" Katara echoed.

"Do you want to believe it?" Aang asked. "Your dad really wants custody over you."

"Public place!" Toph sang.

Zuko nodded. There was an awkward silence, in which I chose to ask, "What's going on?"

"Oh! We-ell, Zuko's dad and mom got divorced—"

"It was all his fault," Zuko interrupted.

"—and then Zuko stepped out of line a little, and then his dad burned his face and disowned him. Zuko moved around with his, well nomadic uncle. They were living near us. You see, Katara and I are brother and sister; we adopted Aang after he had run away from home, same for Toph. So, while Zuko and his uncle were living near us, his uncle died, and since the only other option for Zuko was to go home or in an orphanage, dad adopted him as well!" Sokka recapped.

"Yup, that's pretty much it. About a year ago, Ozai, that's Zuko's dad, came back around and demanded we give Zuko back. Well, obviously we weren't going to, since he killed my mom, threatened to do the same to Gran-Gran, whom we were living with, and also threatened to burn the house down. We have been moving around trying to get away from him ever since," Katara said.

I frowned. "So, this means you're going to move again?" I asked.

"I'm sick of moving and my family's nomadic!" Aang complained.

"Stop complaining, Twinkle Toes."

The next day at school, I asked Aang and Toph about Zuko. "He's going to talk to his dad on Sunday," was the answer.

So, of course, on Monday, I asked how it went. Sadly, we were in homeroom, and Mrs. White asked us to stop talking. I had to wait until lunch to ask them. But, Mrs. Kutchel needed me to come at lunch to discuss the essay I had failed. Derek is so going to tease me for this.

I could hear his voice in my head: "Not so much of a band nerd, are you?"

"You wanted me, Mrs. Kutchel?" I asked.

"Tess, I think you could do better on this essay," she said. I looked at the D paper.

"Yeah?" Truth is, I had forgotten all about the essay and finished it all at the last second.

"I want you to rewrite this, prove to me what you're capable of," Mrs. Kutchel said. I sighed down at the essay. I took it and left.

Finally, I found out the situation on Zuko, with him holding his carpetbag. "My dad is sincerely interested in healing the family, he even found my mom and is inserting Azula into public school," Zuko said.

"Azula? Why does her name remind me of the color blue?" I asked.

Zuko shrugged. "She's mean and in the eight grade; that's all I know of it," Zuko said.

I had to go rewrite that stupid essay, so I didn't see Zuko get into his car and leave.

Let me just tell you, I am so glad that Azula is in the eight grade, and I wasn't the unlucky sucker that had to lead her around.

Sorry Brian!

* * *

**A/N: Whoo! It's almost 11 o'clock while I'm posting this and I am ready to go to bed! Not that I spent any of today actually writing this. Hah. Actually, wrote the last six and a quarter paragraphs today. He-he, sorry. **

**Happy Easter! Even though none of you will be reading this on Easter! **

**Oh, also, sorry if I make Tess seem Mary-Sue-ish. I don't mean it. If you don't know what a Mary-Sue is, forget I mentioned it...**

**Gosh now it's _after_ 11 o'clock! Where has all the time gone? Oh yeah, into this Author's note. Author's notes are fun, haven't any of you noticed I always like to write a somewhat long after Author's note?**


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